This isn't exactly applicable to your brother's scope comment but might be important to lurkers. One of the cautions taught in hunter's ed here is to use binoculars to search for and identify game and not your scope. This is, of course, so you don't identify that moving blob at 400 yards as another hunter - in your cross-hairs!

I do the same thing with a scope, after I identify something as a game animal. My scope is more powerful than my binoculars so I can get a better look at a head when looking for horns. This is especially important for meat hunters like me who are looking for animals with smaller horns.